Copy and paste this text into your word processor. Remember to include your address so that your MP knows you are a constituent and can reply to you.

Dear [MP's name],

In support of the Save Childhood Movement's 'Too Much, Too Soon Campaign', www.toomuchtoosoon.org, I am very concerned about the DfE's current approach to early years education and the lack of focus on the best interests of the child. I share the movement's concerns about the lack of evidence-based policymaking and, in particular, the government's persistence in seeing this stage of life as predominantly a preparation for school, rather than a unique and vitally important developmental stage in its own right.

It is clear that research does not support an early start to testing and formal teaching, but provides considerable evidence to challenge it. Very few countries have a school starting age as young as 4 and children in other countries who enter school at 6 or 7 – after several years of high quality nursery education – consistently achieve better educational results as well as higher levels of well-being. The success of Scandinavian systems suggests that many intractable problems in British education – such as the widening gap in achievement between rich and poor, problems with boys’ literacy, and the ‘summer-borns’ issue – could be addressed by fundamentally re-thinking our early years provision.

1 in 10 children and young people aged 5 - 16 now suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder - that is around three children in every class. Over 8,000 children aged under 10 years old are now reported as suffering from severe depression. Surely this is is an indication that something is profoundly wrong and that developmentally inappropriate pressures may be causing significant damage to the self-image and learning dispositions of a generation of children.

As my MP I would very much like to know where you stand with this situation and ask you to support the work of the Save Childhood Movement, and in particular the movement's Early Years Manifesto - 'Putting Children First' which aims to provide a more considered and evidence-based way forward.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

[Your Name]

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